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I’ll admit, I’m still torn as to whether I should keep on blogging about Walt Disney World or go back to life as we used to know it here at TD365. So what I’m thinking is this; I’ll write about what I feel like writing about. Cause, well… that’s what I’ve done for the last few years here. LOL Why change it now. 😉 That doesn’t mean I’m done writing about Disney, it just means I’m going back to writing however my muse pulls me. Sound good?

Now, I think I’m going to cuddle my sleeping girl for a bit. Watch a little streaming TV with her Daddy. Then tuck myself into bed for the night. I’m missing Bran tonight. He would have commented on my last post… and written to me on FB today. I have a feeling my one FB post would have prompted a good laugh between the two of us. Losing a much loved friend really freakin’ sucks. 😦

Today I’m writing with a question. Do you want more on Walt Disney World from me? Want to know our favourites at every park? Want to know what rides/attractions to skip? Or are you getting tired of all the Disney stuff? Do you want me to get back to just sharing whatever is on my mind? At this point I could go either way.

On one side, I’ve really loved sharing about our Disney experience. It’s allowed me to continue our adventure, reliving all the great moments even though we’ve been home for over a month now. I’m enjoying sharing all of our pictures and stories. After all, it was a week and a half that rocked our worlds pretty damn hard. 😉

On the other side, I do miss sharing my other passions. Talking about the kid. Sharing projects I’m working on. Doing a little advocacy and fighting (as always) for justice and equality. It’s nice just following my muse wherever she happens to lead me that day.

So really, I could go either way. I love writing about Disney, but I love writing about my life and passions too. And we are coming up on April again…. how would you feel about me doing the A to Z challenge for a second year? I want to hear from you! That’s one thing about the Disney posts, while they get y’all talking on FB, they sure don’t generate blog comments – and I’m missing the back and forth! LOL

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After being out of our ordinary routine for so long, the routine is hardly routine any longer. Getting used to bedtimes the way they were before heading out to the lake will take a little while again. In fact, my brain is more than a little fried tonight. It’s one of those days where there is SOOO much I could be sharing (especially after a week of silence) that it’s hard to get myself centered enough to write much of anything. So how about this? How about a thank you!

I was looking at my blog stats earlier today. Cringing and preparing myself for the worst. After all, a week with no new posts to help drive traffic? I didn’t expect much. And while yes, my daily traffic did take a bit of a nose dive, my month still ended up pretty good. Which made me think back on all the years I’ve been blogging now… and how crazy it is that so many of you stop in to check on what our family is doing, what I’m ranting about, or to find a new diy idea. It really is a little staggering, and I appreciate each and every one of you. I truly do.

By the end of August 2010, I had just finished up my 8th month of blogging. And my traffic for the month stood at 263 hits. My blog was a personal challenge, so I was thrilled that there were so many people who came by to check on my photo of the day.

In 2011 I changed the focus from a photo a day to a post a day… which opened things up a great deal for me. I still shared a great deal of images, but I also began sharing my thoughts and feelings too. August of 2o11 this blog saw 978 hits.

Now it’s 2012, and I’m in my third year of blogging. I write on a number of topics (some of which are fairly “hot button”), and I’ve switched to six posts a week, taking Fridays off. I share photo shoot previews, and personal snapshots too. But in all things, you can count on me to be open and honest. I don’t think there are really any topics I won’t discuss. If it’s important to me, I’ll share… and yes, sometimes that includes things that are seriously TMI. And this year? In August we had a total of 1910 hits (in spite of a serious drop in traffic the last week).

Are those numbers staggering? Maybe not to some. But to this crunchy momma who started this journey as a photo a day challenge to herself, not expecting anyone to really follow along? Yeah, those numbers are pretty darn amazing.

Thank you! Thank you for your “follows”, your “likes”, your “comments”, your “shares”, your “tweets”, your “pins”, and mostly? Thank you for coming along with me. Life is many things, but it’s rarely easy… and it’s nice to know that there are others along for the ride.

I’ve started this blog post a few times now, and on vastly different subjects. Clearly I’m in no shape to really be writing much of anything tonight – at least not in a cohesive fashion. So it is what it is.

What do you want to see here on nights like tonight? Do you mind these rambling “I have nothing to share” shares? Would you rather I taped my fingers together and just watched reruns of Bones or Frasier? Or should I pluck some random fb meme from my newsfeed and post that?

I’ve been posting here on an almost daily basis for a few years now… and while I love that it gives me a chance to wind down at the end of the day, I do wonder if you (my wonderful reader) would be better served by my posting a little less frequently. After all, not every post is a gem. I refer you back to the post I made a couple years ago that in it’s whole was an image of my reusable slurpee cup. LOL Clearly, not every post is a winner.

So, for my own self serving reasons I continue to post six days a week (unless I’m sick, away, or dead). But I do wonder if you’d rather see other things when I end up on one of these long-winded, winding, posts about nothing in particular. 😉 Let me know. 🙂 After all, there is a comments section.

And for something completely random, here’s a necklace I made with one of the many charms I commissioned from Nanashi-no: I now wear it to all my photoshoots. 😀

I could certainly do with a few days to recoup and recover… It’s been a crazy week, and I’m feeling completely worn out and exhausted. But no. That’s just not in the cards (not for a mom with a high need little girl, anyway).

To attempt a recap? I’m not sure I could even do it. But I’m hoping that I’ll be able to share a little more again as things settle down. For now though, I do hope you’ll forgive me. Two boring blog posts in a row? *slaps self on wrist* BAD BLOGGER, BAD! I’ve been punished, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll come through with shining colours. Maybe then I’ll be able to actually share a tutorial or two for the fabulous gifts I helped the girlie to craft for her Dad and Pop Pop. See you then!

Okay, it’s obvious I’m reaching pretty far this time. But it’s April 30th, the last day of the A to Z challenge, and I had to find a way to pull together a title with both a Y and a Z. I thought about Yonder Zenith – but really, that’s just as far a reach. 😉

In any movement of importance, there are always zealots, and they never bring a level head or a spirit of cooperation with them. So while our ideals may speak to equality and acceptance, we do need to keep an eye out and guard our hearts and minds against those who take these notions and force them upon people. Because, in doing so, we’ve turned against equality and acceptance.

Do I advocate accepting a society that treats you as “less than”? Definitely not. But we do need to accept those who would try to force you into their mold of what a man or woman should be. We don’t need to accept their condemnation or bow to their will, but in accepting them for what they are, we can move past them knowing that we don’t need them or their acceptance. It can be a confusing idea. But but ultimately, when we accept others for what they are, even if we don’t necessarily agree with them, we free ourselves of the constraints they’d harness us with.

So, my last message for you during this month of discovery on the topic of sexual and gender identity? It goes back to the letter A, with the word acceptance. Just as we can free ourselves of the restraints others would place on us by simply accepting them as they are (and thus not giving them power they don’t deserve), we can claim our own power by accepting ourselves as we are.

Accept yourself, and find the freedom and love you so rightly deserve!

One thing I know with assurance is that wishing doesn’t change things. But, those same wishes can inspire us to take action that does. Change happens slowly, gradually, with these sudden AHA moments of hope that cause things to leap forward. It’s not easy, it’s hard work, but it’s so worth doing.

I’ve said it many times before, but here it is again – just for clarity. I know I’m not the one who will change the world, but maybe I’ll inspire those who will. I know things can be better, heck, all I have to do is look at how far society has come just in the last twenty years.

The things members of the acronym community had to face when I was young, seem unspeakable and foreign to the youth of today. The physical punishment and torment, while so fresh in my memory, is a lifetime away for those who are currently discovering their sexual identities. Bullying is still alive and real – but it’s a very different type of attack. And I have hope that it too will fade into a distant memory.

My wish is one for my daughter. And it’s a wish that I hope will spur the action needed to see it come true. I wish that by the time she is old enough to be discovering her sexual identity that it will no longer matter how she identifies. She will be accepted as she is, for who she is, without question. It’s a big wish. But I know it can happen… after all, look how far we’ve come in the last decade, given one more, just imagine where we could be!

So… for the last week, whenever I’d think of the letter U, the word ubiquitous would pop into my head. It’s one of the few cool U words that I actually know and use. I kept putting it out of mind, but it kept popping back in like some annoying song that Barney the purple dinosaur would sing. *shudders at the mere thought of Barney* The kid knows zombies and lycanthropes, but we’ve banned Barney in this house. Anyway… The word just kept coming back to me. And you know what? I’m going to go with it.

Ubiquitous. It basically means that something is everywhere, ever present but not omnipresent. It’s just a fancy way of saying something is everywhere. In the summer ants are ubiquitous. Got it? Or should I pull out and quote my dictionary? Oh heck… Okay, here’s the dictionary definition:

My desktop and the dictionary app, complete with the definition of ubiquitous.

So there you have it! “Present, appearing, or found everywhere” I don’t know why I fought the word, it really is absolutely perfect. Whether or not we are noticeable, there are members of the acronym community everywhere. If there are people to be found, you’ll find members of the pride community. We aren’t always “flamers”, though it can be delightfully fun to stand apart from the crowd. Sometimes we blend in with everyone else, completely unnoticed. Unnoticed but ubiquitous. 😉

Okay, I’m off for the night. Clearly I’m in a rather goofy mood. But I figured I’m allowed… ’cause today? Today is one of those barf rainbows and crap glitter kinda days. LMAO Yep, today you’d see me from a mile away.

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One of the very best things you can do for yourself is to build community. Having a “family by choice” will provide you with the supports we all need and don’t always get after coming out to our family by blood. Even in those instances where your family is fabulous and supportive, it always helps to have a community of people who really understand what you are going through and who have either been there, or are currently right with you.

The internet is an amazing resource when it comes to finding a sense of community. These days, even individuals with severe, life-limiting anxiety disorders can still find others and build camaraderie. We can find a global community, always ready and waiting thanks to things like email lists, online forums, and FB groups. But I do encourage you to also seek out local individuals, because there are times when we all need to reach out and actually FEEL another person whom we can trust and know will be there for us.

Here in Saskatoon I can’t recommend the ACC any more highly than I already do. They run a number of excellent programs for individuals of almost every age range in almost every situation. You can find them online at http://avenuecommunitycenter.ca/. PFLAG is also another amazing resource, and there are branches all over North America. Check them out at http://www.pflagcanada.ca/ and http://pflag.org/. For those of you in high school, talk to your guidance counselor to find out if there is a GSA you can join. And for more information on resources in your neck of the woods, check out http://www.gaystraightalliance.org/ which includes a directory that is world wide.

There is no reason to feel you have to go it alone. You aren’t alone. Far from it! No matter how you identify, even if you aren’t sure how exactly you fit into the whole spectrum, you can be sure there are others out there just like you. And now you’ve got some tools to help you find them.

For those who don’t know, we are currently celebrating Pink Revolution, which is a Saskatchewan initiative that got it’s start from the Day of Pink. Pink Revolution is a week long anti-bullying campaign in it’s very first year, beginning on March 30th it will finish up on April 5th. The Day of Pink follows on April 11th. If you haven’t gotten your Pink Revolution T-shirts yet they are available through The Avenue Community Center or Diva’s for only $5. Day of Pink shirts can be purchased through their website.

In contrast to what some think, bullying is everyone’s responsibility. And homophobic bullying is putting many of our youth to the test. We read the stories, over and over again. Youth that were harassed to the breaking point, unable to handle the torment, looking for any way out. Youth that needed to know they weren’t alone, youth who needed someone – anyone – to step up to the plate.

Some people wonder why I’m so vocal on issues of bullying. The fact of the matter is we never know who we may reach. I refuse to stay silent. Our young people need to hear from adults and other youth who get it, who have their heads on straight, and who get just how wrong homophobic bullying is. We need to speak out in support of our gender creative children and our gender variant youth. It is our responsibility.

Be visible. Wear a flag pin, put on a Pink Revolution t-shirt, join your school’s GSA – make some noise. Be heard. Make a difference. You just may be that light in the dark someone needed to see.